_Map of the Banat and Transylvania with Mr Crosse's route._




ROUND ABOUT THE CARPATHIANS.




CHAPTER I.

Down the Danube from Buda-Pest--Amusements on board the
steamer--Basiash--Drive to Oravicza by Weisskirchen--Ladies of
Oravicza--Gipsy music--Finding an old schoolfellow--The _czardas_.


One glorious morning in June 1875, I, with the true holiday feeling at
heart, for the world was all before me, stepped on board the Rustchuk
steamer at Buda-Pest, intending to go down the Danube as far as Basiash.

Your express traveller, whose aim it is to get to the other end of
everywhere in the shortest possible time, will take the train instead of
the boat to Basiash, and there catch up the steamer, saving fully twelve
hours on the way. This time the man in a hurry is not so far wrong; the
Danube between Buda-Pest and the defile of Kasan is almost devoid of
what the regular tourist would call respectable scenery. There are few
objects of interest, except the mighty river itself.